Attacks Against National Security Forces in Côte d’Ivoire

New York, Dec 21 2012 1:00PM The
United Nations envoy in Côte d’Ivoire has condemned the
armed attacks carried out by unidentified individuals
against national security forces in and around the
commercial capital, Abidjan, this morning.

Two people were
injured in the first attack, which was against a post of the
Forces républicaines de Côte d‘Ivoire (FRCI) in Agbaou,
east of Abidjan, according to a news release issued by the
UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI).

In the second
attack, which targeted the Gendarmerie Brigade in Yopougon,
an area in north Abidjan, one prisoner died, the offices of
the Brigade were destroyed and several vehicles burnt.

The
Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of
UNOCI, Bert Koenders, deplored the attacks and stated that
they will not deter the willingness of Ivorians to advance
the national reconciliation process.

The attacks were
carried out at a time when “the political situation was
becoming more hopeful and less tense following an
announcement about the imminent release on bail of eight
officials of the former regime, who had been arrested and
detained after the Ivorian post-electoral crisis,” UNOCI
noted.

The peacekeeping mission added that it dispatched
reinforcements to support the Ivorian security forces as
soon as it was informed of the attacks, and increased its
patrols in the affected areas. In addition, UNOCI medical
teams helped to evacuate injured FRCI soldiers to
Abidjan.

UNOCI was established in 2004 by the Security
Council to facilitate the peace process in the West African
nation, which was split by civil war in 2002 into a
rebel-held north and Government-controlled south.

In the
aftermath of the post-election violence that followed the
2010 presidential polls, the peacekeeping mission is
assisting the country with a number of key tasks, including
the restoration of law and order, national reconciliation,
the holding of legislative elections, and economic
recovery.

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